In a fit of rage, the ice flew even closer to Ryan and Furball in order to impale them with Ice Spears. However, magic attacks and anger aren't a good combination. Ryan managed to escape from the attacks by using some buffs, and Furball didn't even need his help.

Regardless, the same trick wouldn't work twice, so Ryan resumed his attacks with the crossbow while he thinks of a new way to cause damage on the ice dragon. As usual, the easy way out would be by relying on the Power of Money, but Ryan didn't want the easy way out. He wanted to show to those fucking monsters that despite the difference in strength, he could kill them all… at least, one at a time.

Suddenly, the behavior of the dragon changed. Instead of attacking Ryan and Furball, the monster began to fire its massive Ice Spears around that area. After a while, Ryan saw that those ice spears now walled the entire place. That was a pretty weird tactic since Ryan and Furball could break those easily. They kept attacking the monster and slowly decreasing its health. However, very suddenly, the ice dragon stopped flying mid-air and then began to emit a lot of mana. As if they were antennas or something, the spears began to absorb the mana and increase size.

"I don't like this," Ryan said. "Let's get the hell out of here, Furball."

Furball barked, and they tried to leave the area, but then they tried to jump over the spears, something invisible blocked their path… Ryan had seen something similar before. A semi-transparent magic barrier… Alissa used that once.

"It can't be helped…" Ryan clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Let's make that over-sized lizard regret this."

Ryan and Furball jumped toward the dragon, and Ryan was ready to make his Paralyzing Spear pierce the back of the monster even more, but before they could do anything, the monster stopped flying and entered in a weird posture. While covering its face with its wings and shrieking its body, the ice dragon fell on the ground as if it was a huge block of ice.

When Ryan began to charge his Concentrated Strike, the ice dragon started to shine. Its light-blue tone seemed much more sparkling all of a sudden, and Ryan didn't like that. He didn't wait for the attack to become stronger, Ryan used Concentrated Strike over and over again, but the endurance of the monster also had increased. As if that wasn't enough, the temperature was decreasing.

"The hell is this thing trying to pull off?" Ryan bit his lips in annoyance.

Ryan, for some reason, recalled a skill that some monsters had in games. They could concentrate all their energy on a single point, and they could cause massive damage by self-destructing. He couldn't believe that a dragon would go that far, but the ice dragon was definitely planning something similar to kill him. That vast amount of mana being concentrated seemed like good enough proof.

"Furball, get behind me!" Ryan shouted.

Suddenly, the glow around the dragon grew stronger, and Ryan hurried to get away from the monster, he tried to use Power of Money to destroy the ice spears, but he failed. While clenching his teeth, Ryan grabbed his shield and then put it in front of him. In the next moment, the mana inside the dragon exploded, and everything between the monster and the ice spears become a single massive block of ice.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill Freeze Resistance.

Effect: decreases the damage and the effects caused by spells and attacks that might freeze by one point per level.

You obtained one status point.

Ryan's entire body froze, and his health began to decrease at a fearsome speed. However, he reacted on time by using Purification and Heal several times on arrow to escape death. Still, even though he escaped death by freezing, the ice dragon was still alive, and the damn beast was breaking the ice with its claws, ready to smash him apart as well.

After using Appraisal, Ryan confirmed that the monster had used all its remaining mana for that massive area of effect spell. That was what he had been waiting for… So, Ryan activated Power Shot. When the monster got close enough, it realized that Ryan was alive and ready to attack. The ice dragon immediately fell back, but Ryan used Flash to disappear from that sea of ice.

Ryan reappeared a few meters above the monster and fired his Power Shot. He hit exactly where he wanted to hit… the butt of his Paralyzing Spear. Although the weapon's durability was reaching its bottom, the attack made it pierce the flesh even further.

"HHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"

The beast screamed in agony again, but Ryan didn't stop there. While he was falling, he grabbed his hammer and decided to make his swords pierce the monster's flesh even further. However, the ice dragon began to shine again. Ryan clicked his tongue since he didn't expect that the monster would be able to use that with so little mana… unfortunately, his mana was also almost empty, so he couldn't escape. It was do or die!

When Ryan was about to land the final attack, the light expanded, and Ryan was forced to close his eyes, but before he could become a statue of ice again, he made his sword pierce all the way to the dragon's brain. When Ryan opened his eyes, he saw himself standing at the top of the dead dragon. In the end, Ryan won, but it looked like something was off…

"Where are my coins?" Ryan asked with a frown on his face.

As if that wasn't enough, Ryan couldn't see any drop around the corpse either… After thinking for a while, Ryan concluded that the damn dragon didn't try to freeze everything again, that light had been just a decoy to divert from Ryan's attention while the monster escaped. Still, to think that a dragon would leave its body behind… they sure had a lot of interesting skills. Regardless, Ryan ended up wasting a lot of time.

Class: Hunter Lv 67 (+ 02 UP / Elementalist Lv 55 / Monk Lv 16 (--)

Race: Night Demon /Reptilian/ Ice Fox (--)

Rank: 222th

Health: 1156 /1156 (3,19/s)

Mana: 1818 /1818 (3,19/s)

Stamina: 1559 /1559 (3,19/s)

Strength: 31 (+166) (+130)

Dexterity: 1600 (+1339) (+82)

Speed: 85 (+611) (+48)

Intelligence: 81 (+513) (+3)

Endurance: 28 (+131) (+160)

Control: 06 (+622) (+10)

Mentality: 08 (+36) (+30)

Luck: 74 (+15)

Recovery: 700 (+991) (+330)

Willpower: 30 (+36)

Coins: 17.236.441

Status: 00

Skill List

Offensive Physical Skills: Power Shot Lv 85 (+ 04 UP), Rapid Shot Lv 48 (+ 06 UP),

Passive Physical Skills: Eagle Eyes Lv 66 (+ 03 UP), Concentration Lv 66 (+ 03 UP), Archery Lv 66 (+ 03 UP), Accuracy Lv 66 (+ 03 UP), Firing Posture Lv 11,

Spells: Ranger's Awakening Lv 11, Crazy Shot Lv 06

Support Skills: Icebound Lv 19 (+ 04 UP), Cold Resistance Lv 34 (+ 15 UP), Freeze Resistance Lv 01,

Classes:

Combat: Beastmaster Lv 32 (+ 02 UP), Archer Lv 60 (+ 02 UP), Combat Archer Lv 43 (+ 03 UP), Sniper Lv 36 (+ 03 UP), Weapons Master Lv 16 (+ 03 UP), Sentinel Lv 09 (+ 03 UP), Demon Hunter Lv 15 (+ 03 UP), Ranger Lv 06,

Non-Combatant:

Race: Centaur